Episode 602 - It's my turn now bitches!
Sep 26, 2022
What happens when the victim becomes the victor? Most of the time it's like the classic line from The Who “Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss”, typically revolutions (and elections), that promise change don't really deliver, the new people use it as a chance to get revenge on their enemies, take advantage of things the same as the last guys, and do everything they can to cling to power. The true exceptions are rare and special, i.e. Vaclav Havel and the Velvet revolution.
Topics and Show Notes
We decided to apply this to fiction and characters- What happens when the underdog gets the upper hand? Do they use it as a chance to take revenge, are they gracious and magnanimous, do they become the bully themselves, do they betray their ideals? How they handle their power is very interesting and says a lot about them. There are characters like Walter white, a downtrodden highschool teacher, who rises to power and becomes a crime boss. A similar story is told in Scarface, 711 Ocean Drive, and The Godfather. The new Netflix series “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” has a smaller scale take on it with a bullied youth becoming a super powered cyber-warrior criminal. In these stories the character arc is well portrayed and it's interesting to watch their moral fall even as they rise through the ranks of evil.
However, it can become a little more muddy when a character is written as honourable and good and yet they still use their sudden power to get revenge in a petty way. This simple act can be a powerful indication of hypocrisy and moral weakness, or just really bad writing. Of course that doesn't apply to all acts of revenge, only when it betrays a character's ideals or is OUT of character.
How do your characters handle a turnabout in fortunes? Do they use it as a chance to take what they can get and bet the bad guy themselves, do they get revenge, do they throw away their ideals, do they stay true to their character, are they magnanimous?
This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Crimson Stars - A creepy, gothic horror techno landscape of winking red stars and the pale blue trailing lights of ion drives in deep space. This is a cold world of blackness, danger, and vampires! The music really sets the scene.
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
Dave Skunk Comic - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/sep/20/featured-comic-dave-skunk-comic/
Featured music:
Crimson Stars - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Crimson_Stars/ - by Commissar_Tarkin, rated T.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Kawaiidaigakusei- https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
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Ozoneocean at 9:13PM, Sept. 28, 2022
Ah well, gotta pick the ideal time :)
Commissar_Tarkin at 9:49PM, Sept. 27, 2022
> Ah, the way to do it would be to go to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu etc with a proposal :) I know, but I've been following what's been going on there recently (concerning animation) with great interest (and some consternation) and I can tell now is probably not the time for that.
Ozoneocean at 9:23PM, Sept. 27, 2022
Yeah, you must have clicked on the image, it takes you here X)
Ozoneocean at 9:22PM, Sept. 27, 2022
Ah, the way to do it would be to go to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu etc with a proposal :)
Gunwallace at 4:50PM, Sept. 27, 2022
Glad you liked the theme. If you want an mp3 copy just send me a PQ and we can arrange an email exchange. (That applies to anyone who wants the theme for their comic, btw.)
Commissar_Tarkin at 5:14AM, Sept. 27, 2022
Huh, I was sure I left the comment to the news article, not the quackcast itself, but apparently I had the two mixed up. @Ozoneocean - don't hold your breath for the animated series though, it's... a life aspiration at best. Not that there's no pitch bible or concepts or anything, just that it's unlikely to actually get made.
Ozoneocean at 4:36AM, Sept. 27, 2022
@Commissar_Tarkin - wow, that's super cool ^_^
Commissar_Tarkin at 4:32AM, Sept. 27, 2022
Oh, wow. I did not expect our comic to warrant a musical theme! If our setting someday, somehow does get made into an animated series (which, admittedly, would require a miracle of biblical proportions nowadays) like we wanted from the start, I'd definitely ask Gunwallace if we could use his theme somewhere in it. Also, in a funny coincidence with the topic of this podcast, the animated series was supposed to be centered on a group of human cadets secretly trying to overthrow the vampires. And the whole "What happens when the victim becomes the victor?" was supposed to feature heavily in the last seasons at the very least.